The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
A beseecher besought the visitation of chastisement, 1 The unbelievers-- there is none to avert it-- 2 from punishing them. He is the Lord of the Ascending Stairways, 3 by which the angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him in one Day which will last for fifty thousand years. 4 So be thou patient with a sweet patience; 5 They surely take it to be far away, 6 While we behold it nigh: 7 On that Day the heavens shall become like molten brass, 8 And the mountains will be like flakes of wool, 9 And no friend will ask after a friend, 10 They will be shown each other. The criminal will wish that he could be ransomed from the punishment of that Day by his children 11 And his wife and his brother. 12 And his kin that sheltered him. 13 And all those who are on the earth, to save himself. 14 Nay, verily it is a furnace 15 It snatches away by the scalps, 16 It will claim all such as turn their backs [on what is right,] and turn away [from the truth,] 17 And masseth and then hoardeth. 18 ۞ Truly man was created very impatient;- 19 When evil toucheth him, he is bewailing. 20 And niggardly when good touches him; 21 Except the observers of prayer - 22 who are constant in prayer; 23 who, from their wealth is a known right 24 For the beggar and the destitute. 25 and who accept as true the [coming of the] Day of Judgment; 26 and go in fear of the chastisement of their Lord 27 surely the chastisement of their Lord is a thing none can feel secure from – 28 And those who guard their private parts 29 save from their wives and what their right hands own, then not being blameworthy 30 But whoever seeks beyond that, then they are the transgressors - 31 and who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges: 32 Who uphold their testimonies, 33 and (finally) those who do not miss their ritual - prayers at the prescribed times; 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35